Who's To Blame?
What happens to a society that can’t work together?
What happens if elected government officials aren’t trusted enough by the people who voted for them to get consensus on anything?
COVID has accentuated our biggest flaw here in the States. We’re the greatest country to ever exist and the wealthiest because of it.
What’s our biggest flaw? We have no empathy. We can’t build accord because we don’t trust one another. We don’t trust one another because we don’t know each other.
You have your opinions, I have mine. You stay over there, I’ll stay over here.
I’m a proponent of big government programs designed to help the most people possible as quickly as possible.
200,000 people are dead because Donald Trump made the calculation that:
1) a mask mandate would be impossible to enforce because people don’t trust government and
2) while trying to enforce something unpopular, his re-election chances would dwindle.
It’s as simple as that. There’s nothing evil or malicious about it - it’s all basic political math.
The problem isn’t that Donald Trump sees the writing on the wall and decided to further his own interests instead of doing what was right - that’s A problem, for sure, but not dissimilar to most political calculation on both sides of the aisle.
The problem is that our government could not effectively make the case to ~50% of its constituents that wearing a mask would have saved lives and made other people more safe.
The reason is simple: in this American capitalistic society we’ve built, we’ve prioritized personal wealth and independence over the common good. This line of thinking has trickled into everything from healthcare to economics to public policy.
“I don’t have to depend on what the government says is right and neither should you.”
“If you can’t stay safe on your own, that isn’t my problem. I’m not wearing a mask or doing anything that hinders me in any way.”
So, who’s to blame for this? My feeling is it’s the government’s fault for not being able to build consensus - and that issue bridges political ideology.
For 40 years, Republicans have stood on this notion of personal responsibility and that you don’t need government intervention in your life. A global pandemic challenges these basic notions. And, honestly, conservatives bandy these talking points around because if you don’t expect your government to do anything to help you, you by default don’t expect them to do the job they were elected to do.
Democrats, I think, have better intentions, but bungle the message so completely that the middle 90% of the country doesn’t believe anything they say. There’s also a sense they prefer big government because it allows them to stay in power and keep cashing checks - and I can’t say that part is wrong.
The United States has been the laughing stock of the world in regards to COVID because COVID is the perfect storm: an invisible opponent by which the only means to fight it require a competent federal plan and buy-in from the vast majority of the public - and that’s something our current political climate was expertly designed against.